1970s killer Richard Greist is recommitted

WEST CHESTER – Richard Greist must remain committed against his will to Norristown State Hospital for another yearbut the killer can be given expanded off-ground privileges as he continues to progress in his psychiatric treatment, a Common Pleas Court judge has ruled.

Judge Edward Griffith filed an order recommitting Greist on Tuesday, agreeing with the recommendation of his treating psychiatrist at Norristown that he needs to remain in the secure environment of the hospital for fear that if released he could regress mentally and see the psychosis that led to the killing of his wife and infant son re-emerge.

“However,” wrote the judge in his seven-page opinion and order, ”based on the progress in therapy that Mr. Greist has made during the past year, which is demonstrated by insight into his daily choices, greater self-awareness, expressions of sadness and remorse over his past conduct … as well as his conduct on and off (Norristown) grounds, we have permitted Mr. Greist additional off-ground, unsupervised privileges.”

Instead of the current quarterly 12-hour unsupervised off-ground passes, beginning this year Greist will have such privileges every two months in a row, and then a 24-hour overnight pass in the third month. He is also permitted supervised off-grounds passes overseen by Norristown staff as he has had in the past, and is once more allowed to attend Sunday church services at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall Temple in West Norristown.

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All of the off-ground passes must be cleared in advance by Greist’s treatment team at the hospital, and their specifics shared with Griffith and the Chester County District Attorney’s Office. The court and the team have the ability to deny the passes.

Additionally, Greist, 61, is forbidden from having any contact with his two daughters who live in the region, or their families.

In May 1978, Greist flew into a drug-fueled psychotic rage and stabbed his wife Janice Greist to death with a screwdriver in their East Coventry home. He cut her body open and killed and mutilated their unborn son, then stabbed one of his two daughters in the eye and attacked his grandmother with a butcher knife.

He was arrested by police in the yard of his home, shirtless and splattered with blood.

At a non-jury trial the following year, Greist was found not guilty by reason of insanity by a Common Pleas Court judge after a defense expert testified that he was suffering from psychosis at the time of the attacks. Because of that finding, he will never have to serve time in prison, but has been involuntarily committed to Norristown since 1980.

The hospital must present the court with a petition seeking either recommitment or release every year. This year his treating psychiatrist, Dr. Olu Fakiyesi, asked the court to keep him in the hospital, saying he still suffered from a severe mental illness, although it is in remission, and remains a danger to himself and others.

However, in his order Griffith noted that Greist’s personal psychiatrist, Dr. Ira Brenner, said that he had made progress through “insight oriented therapy” to understand the profound impact his rampage has had on the surviving victims and their families.

Brenner, who testified at Greist’s commitment hearing last week, said that he had been able to help Greist manage his current life issues, which involve his third marriage and his confinement to Norristown. He also said Greist shows no signs of psychosis, agitation, aggression, or aberrant behavior, and recommended that he be moved from Norristown to a less restrictive placement such as a half-way house.

On the other hand, Dr. Barbara Ziv, a psychiatrist hired by the prosecution to present its side of the case, said that she did not believe that Greist was making any progress at all. Rather, Ziv told Griffith during the hearing that she remains convinced he is engaging in his treatment “only superficially,” and recommended that his sessions with Brenner cease as they have no benefit.

Ziv also said that she saw no need for Greist to be given any additional off-grounds privileges in his commitment.

But Griffith wrote that he believed the work that Greist would have to do with his treatment team at Norristown to be granted the off-ground passes would prove therapeutic.

They “allow Mr. Greist the opportunity for slightly greater freedom with the oversight and assistance of (his doctors) and the continued structure and monitoring that (Norristown) provides,” the judge wrote.

“Mr. Greist is neither being warehoused nor punished but is in involuntary treatment until such time as he is no longer a clear and present danger to himself or others,” Griffith said in his opinion. The unsupervised passes can be shortened or withheld depending of Greist’s progress, he said.

The commitment hearing this year was marked by Greist’s return to Griffith’s courtroom after the absence of a year, and by his decision to lead his own defense with some assistance from his court-appointed attorney, Marita Malloy Hutchinson.